Mike Rockenfeller headed Ford Multimatic’s first front-row knockout in qualifying for the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s 24 Hours of Daytona.
Rockenfeller stormed to his first IMSA pole position since the 2006 Grand-Am series event at Homestead.
Colder ambient and track temperatures welcomed the 37-car field of GTD and GTD Pro cars at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Most of the GTD Pro class was covered by under one-second with Ford not only claiming pole but the front-row of the GT field.
One key change for this year is that all GTD Pro cars will start ahead of GTD field, unlike the previous combined classification of GT cars.
Rockenfeller ended up on top in the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 having set a 1:45.523 lap time which was ahead of his teammate Frederic Vervisch who drove a 1:45.833.
Dan Harper took third in his debut IMSA qualifying session in the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
The recently uprated BMW factory driver completed a 1:46.005 narrowly ahead of Alexander Sims’ #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and his 1:46.012.
Andrea Calderelli claimed fifth place for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 owing to his 1:46.136 time.
Tommy Milner’s #4 Corvette (1:46.445) took sixth position as reigning GTD Pro champion Laurin Heinrich drove AO Racing’s ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3.R to a 1:46.539 – with the team having performed a late gearbox change prior to qualifying.
In eighth was reigning LMP2 class winner Connor Zilisch in the #91 Trackhouse Racing by TF Sport Corvette, in his first qualifying session in a GT3 car.
Elliott Skeer puts Wright Motorsports Porsche on pole
In GTD, the class of 22 were equally as close as drivers took on the cooler ambient conditions as they set themselves up for their first qualifying outing.
Zach Rubichon of the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO spun on the pit exit at the beginning of the session, but recovered soon afterwards.
Reigning GTD champion Philip Ellis of the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO changed tyres, which was allowed unlike in the past seasons.
Skeer took the GTD pole in the end behind the wheel of the #120 Porsche 911 GT3.R as he set a 1:46.634 lap time.
Winward Racing took second with their 1:46.652 lap time by Ellis.
Trend Hindman put the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in third with a 1:46.658.
Parker Thompson grasped fourth on his penultimate lap in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (1:46.658) as Franck Perera’s #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini rounded off the top-five.
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